Railway-bond.



PATENTED NOV. 3, 1903.

. H. E. PROGUNIER.

RAILWAY BOND.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 22, 1902.

- NO MODEL.

- UNITED STATES Fatentd November 3, 19 03.

PAT NT OFFICE.

RAILWAY=BOND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 743,101, dated November 3, 1953 Application filed September 22, 1902, Serial Nor 124,361. (No model) To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY E. PROCUNIER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Oak park, in the county of Cook and State of Illi nois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Bondsmf which the following is a specification, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide an improved device for making electrical connections between the rails of a track for the purpose of utilizing the track-rails as a portion of an electric circuit, either to conduct the power-current, as in the case of an electric railway, or the signal-operating currents in the case of any railway.

The difficulties encountered in the construction and use of rail-bonds of forms hitherto employed arise from the difficulty of making perfect electrical contact between the bond and rail and maintaining the same despite jarring, vibrations, and corrosion and also in obtaining a form of bonding device which can be readily driven into proper connection with the rail and which shall be free from dangerous liability to crystallizati'on by vibration at or just outside the point at which the wire emerges beyond the grip of the rail. A third difficulty has been experienced in the use of rail-bonds constructed partly to avoid the first-above-mentioned difficulty, in securing perfect contact, by the use of bonding devices of copper or having copper terminals, which by reason of the softness of that metal and its freedom from liability to corrode are adapted to be driven into perfect contact with the rails and to maintain such contact despite atmospheric influences. The difliculty in the use of these copper devices is that thequantity of copper required and its value and the ease with which 'it may be detached make it impossible to retain an equipment of this kind on the tracks, because a single thief can strip from the track with ease and impunity enough of these copper bonds every twentyfour hours to yield him a large income.

My invention consists in forming a bond of ordinary wire, usually steel, of suitable size for carrying the current, with a terminal of a form hereinafter specified and illustrated.

It consists, further, in providinga ferrule of copper foil or a very thin sheet between the bond and the rail, which becomes almost amalgamated with the steel in the process of driving.

The details of structure or form of the terminal are adapted to several distinctive purposes: (a) efiectin g perfect contact by driving, (b) providing means for effectively driving the bond, and (c) preventing crystallization by vibration.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side View showing two rails connected by my improved bond. Fig. 2 is a section of the rail at the aperture in which the bond is driven, show ing the terminal of the latter in plan view of full size. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the terminal on an enlarged scale. Fig. 4. is a view similar to Fig. 2, except as to the position of the bond, which is shown entering the hole in the rail, the latter having a lining or bushing of soft-metal foil. Fig. 5 is a view simi lar to Fig. 2, but showing in addition the soft-metal-foil lining, which is designed to be represented as forced'into union with the terminal and the rail. Fig. 6 is a view Show ing the rail in section at the hole through which the bond is to be entered and showing in plan View a bond having a diiferent form of terminal from that shown in the other figures, the lining or bushing of soft-metal foil being shown employed with said terminal, the parts being represented in position analogous to that of Fig. 4. Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 5, showing the form of bondterminal which is seen in Fig. 6. Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 6, showing a third form of bond-terminal with a soft-metal-foil lining for the aperture in the rail. Fig. 9 is a View similar to Fig. 7, but showing the form of terminal which is seen in Fig. 8. Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 5, but showing a construction in which the terminal is not intogral with the wire. Fig. 11 is a section at the line 11 11 on Fig. 10.

A is the vertical .web of the rail, which is drilled through to receive the bond.

B is the bond-wire, which is of steel about three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. The ends of the wire bond are upset, so as to form a portion B at the end, having a very slow or long taper, the length of this portion B being from an inch to an inch and a-half when completed and the greatest diameter of said tapered portion being about a quarter of an inch greater than the original diameter of the wire. Back of the point of greatest diameter of said tapered terminal the wire is reduced somewhat abruptly, forming a shoulder 11 from which the wire again is reduced to the original diameter by a taper much more steep than the taper of the terminal B, but still quite gradual, extending over a distance of half an inch. The hole drilled in the web of the rail is substantially of the diameter of the terminal taper B at the narrowest point of said slow-tapered part B, and beyond said part the wire may be more abruptly reduced for a very short distance, as at b, to facilitate the entrance of the wire in the hole of the rail-web, as more fully hereinafter explained. The outer edge of the hole thus comes onto the slow-tapered part B of the terminal, as stated, at about the commencement of the slow taper of said terminal, and from that point the terminal is forced by vdriving through the rail, the taper being so slight that the complete insertion of the terminal is effected partly by the stretching of the metal of the rail and partly by the compression or shrinking of said terminal, so that before the point of greatest diameter reaches the plane of the outer face of the rail the terminal B has contact with the entire surface of the hole drilled through the rail, such as could not have been effected by any mere lateral pressure of one surface against the other and which is due to the long sliding and drawing action in which the surface fibers of the terminal and the rail are thoroughly interlocked, almost perfectly and effectively preventing entrance of moisture or corrosion.

It may be that the above-stated effect is attained by this device in a manner which is practically perfect; but slight deficiencies or defects in either of the elements thus united or in the process or operation described by which they are joined may tend to some imperfection in the contact even under the best circumstances, and in any event a much more perfect contact and one which is practically entirely free from defectiveness consists in the employment of a ferrule O, of copper foil or very thin copper tube, which is passed onto the tapered terminal B of the bond-wire before it is entered in the hole in the rail-web or inserted in the latter before driving the bond in, the thickness being so slight as not absolutely to require any change in the diameter of the terminal or of the hole drilled for it, but only necessitating the commencement of the driving a little earlierthat is, the terminal, with ferrule on it or in the hole,will become tight after beinginserted a less distance than if it were inserted without the ferrule. The driving, however, will be done in the same manner as above described and may be done to the same extentthat is, until the plane of greatest diameter reaches nearly the plane of the outer face of the rail-webif necessary to make the intimate junction desired. In this process the copper of the ferrule is forced into all the fine striations on the surface of the wire, which may be produced in drawing it or in upsetting it, and also in all the circumferential grooves or other irregularities which the drill may have left on the surface of the hole in the web, and in addition or beyond this the copper is probably even forced to some extent into the pores of the metal, efiecting almost an amalgamation of the copper and steel and making the contact amount to almost a union of parts, perfectly excluding moisture and all atmospheric influences which would tend to defeat the operation of the contact for the purpose of transmitting the current.

The shape of the bond-wire terminal back of the boss is designed for two purposes, first, and chiefly, to prevent the crystallization which causes so large an amount of trouble in the present devices and which occurs usually at the plane of the outer surface of the rail-web where the grip of the rail on the wire terminates and beyond which the wire is free to vibrate, the vibration being subjected to abrupt arrest at that plane with the effect of crystallization, which it is well understood results from such arrested vibration. This difficulty I overcome by the gradual reduction of the diameter of the wire from the point of greatest diameter back to the normal diameter of the wire, thus causing the vibrations to be absorbed or arrested gradually throughout this portion of the wire. The taper of this portion B may, consistently with the main purpose above stated, he made sufficiently steep to adapt it to serve to some extent the purpose of receiving the driving pressure, whether it be done by blows of a tool or otherwise, and it may be understood that a suitable tool, apertured to be entered onto the wire and fit the tapered portion, may be formed so as to receive the blows of a hammer and transmit the same to the bondwire for the purpose of forcing it into place. In order to prevent such a tool from being wedged on the tapered portion B I form at the base of the latter the small and comparatively abrupt shoulder 5 already mentioned. This shoulder makes a positive stop for the driving-tool,which will prevent it wedging on the longer taper B while the latter makes it unnecessary that the shoulder I) should have extended area, since by receiving a large portion of the driving stress said tapered part B will prevent the tool from shearing off the shoulder N.

In order to prevent the necessity for a degree of accuracy in drilling the holes in the rails, which might not be easily maintained in practice, I extend the terminal bond-wire for a half an inch, more or less, beyond the slow-tapered portion B, forming a tip I) of greater taper running down to the original diameter of the wire or less. This permits the bond-terminal to be entered in a hole of not greater diameter than the smaller end of the slow-tapered portion 13, so that it may be driven from that point far enough to produce the perfect contact and substantial union above described over the entire extent of the aperture in the rail and the length of said portion B, being two or three times the full thickness of the rail-web. Such contact may be made at different posit-ions in the length of said portion, according to the original size of the hole, the larger hole merely requiring the terminal to be driven in so that the final contact is made toward the larger end, while the smallest hole which will be adequate will make the contact over an equal extent toward the smaller end of the slow'tapered portion.

I do not limit myself to employing the extremely thin bushing or surface-covering of copper which I have above described, since manifestly greater thickness of copper would not interfere with the result, at least up to a thickness of a thirty-second or possibly even up to a sixteenth of an inch, provided the slow taper necessary is not abandoned. It should be noticed, however, that it is in no case necessary to employ greater thickness of copper than might be equal to foil or may be substantially embedded in the pores and unavoidable inaccuracies of surface of the bond and hole.

The feature of my invention, which consists in the employment of the thin soft-metal bushing or lining is applicable to rail-bonds having a different form of terminal from that which I have shown in Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive. In Figs. 6 and 7 I have illustrated this feature applied to a familiar form of bond-terminal in which the bond-wire X is inclosed in a split ring Y, which is exteriorly tapered and adapted to be closed up by being driven into the hole in the rail. This form of terminal presents many of the difficulties with respect to maintenance of perfect electrical contact with the rail above pointed out, and the lining or. bushing of thin copper foil Z may be employed with this terminal with the same advantage as with the one first-above described, and it may be used in substantially the same manner-that is to say, by being inserted through the hole in the rail slightly flanged at one end to prevent it from being started on through the rail by the first frictional engagement or touch of the terminal, the terminal comprising the end of the wire X or the split ring Y thereon being introduced within-the flanged end of the ferrule and driven home in the usual manner with the usual effect of closing up the split ring onto the wire and with the same effect above described so far as the bushing is concerned-namely, that it is forced into perfect contact and substantial union with the metal surfaces, between which it is compressed bywire having the end provided integrally with the slight taper of the ferrule. I have rering and its adaptation to operate in conjunction with a cylindrical hole in the rail and with the soft-metal bushing it involves the novel features of my invention more fully described with respect to the other figures.

In Figs. 8 and 9 I have shown my invention adapted to another old form of bond-terminal, in which the end of the bond-wire X is embraced by a crescent shaped terminal wedge Y, which as it is driven home in the hole in the rail is intended to force the terminal portion of the wire into contact with one side of the hole in the rail, while the wedge embracing the other side is similarly forced into contact with the remainder or a large part of the remainder of the circumference of the hole. Here, again, it will be manifest that thedifiiculties in respect to producing and maintaining good electrical contact A and excluding moisture, which would destroy the same by corrosion, are met and that they may be overcome by the same expedient above described, consisting in inserting the bushing or lining ferrule Z in the hole of the rail and making the crescent wedge Y with the very slow taper described, so that when it is driven home about the terminal portion X of the bond-wire the union between the ma and the terminal portion X and the cresto be forced or drawn-to a fit inthe cylinthe crescent wedge of the forms illustrated.

in Figs. 6, 7, S, and 9; but at the same time I consider the particular form of terminal shown in Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive, wherein said terminal is integral with the bond-wire, and consists, therefore, of only one element, as preferable to the other forms in a great majority of situations.

I claim- 1. A rail-bond consisting of a conductingwire provided with a terminal tapered nar' rowing toward the end from a short distance back thereof, with sufficiently slight taper to be compressed to a fit in a cylindrical aperture in the rail in which it may be entered, and having the base of such terminal at a plane transverse to the axial line thereof, formed as an annular shoulder around the body of the wire.

2. A rail-bond consisting of a conducting- IIO IIS

aterminal tapered narrowing toward the end from a short distance back thereof, with sufficiently slight taper to be compressed to a fit in a cylindrical aperture in the rail in which it may be entered, and having the base of such terminal at a plane transverse to the axial line thereof formed as an annular shoulder around the original body of the wire, adapted for driving the terminal into such aperture.

3. A railway-bond consisting of a conducting-wire provided with an integral terminal slightly tapered narrowing toward the end from a short distance back thereof, adapted to be compressed to a fit in a cylindrical aperture of the rail, such terminal being gradually enlarged beyond the normal diameter of the wire to a maximum approximately at the plane at which the face of the rail is to stand when the terminal is driven home, and being reduced gradually from said maximum outward to the normal diameter of the wire.

4. A rail-bond consisting of a conductingwire provided integrally with-a slightly-tapered terminal adapted to be compressed to a fit in a cylindrical aperture of the rail in prising a comparatively abrupt shoulder, b and a moderately-tapered portion beyond said shoulder, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. A rail-bond junction comprising a bonding-wire provided with a terminal of slight taper, and a ferrule or bushing forming a thin covering or foil of non-corrosive, conductive metal, encompassing the tapered terminal in the aperture in the rail provided to receive the latter, and drawn and compressed into the inequalities of the surface of the terminal and the aperture, substantially as set forth.

6. Arail-bond junction comprising an ordinary wire having an integral terminal of sufficiently slight taper to be compressed to a fitin a cylindrical aperture of the rail in which it may be entered, and a ferrule or bushing forming a thin covering or foil of non-corrosive, conducting metal, encompassing the tapered terminal in the aperture and drawn and compressed into the inequalities of the surface of the terminal and aperture, substantiallyas set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, at Chicago, Illinois, in the presence of two witnesses, this 12th day of September, 1902.

HENRY E. PROCUNIER.

In presence of CHAS. S. BURTON, FRED. G. FISCHER. 

